The Sound of Conspiracy
by PTAV
Summary: With no Brotherhood, Kid Flash settled into stopping small crooks and trying to build a relationship with Jinx. Things start going awry, however, when he gets tagged in a fight and finds himself without his super speed. KFxJinx, with cameos from others.
1. Chapter 1 Introduction

(Author's Note: This introduction is meant to be an aside from Wally/Kid Flash, not as the first part of the story. It does, however, establish the basic setting for the story. Consider this section his way of telling the story to others, should they ever be bored enough to ask him.)

--

So, you might be wondering who I am. Yeah, you, sitting there in the dark on the other side of the computer screen.

How could you _not_ know who I am?

I'm Wally West, a regular ol' teenager. I go to school when I feel like it, I keep myself fit, and I'm a sucker for a pretty girl. I'm also kind of funny, but I've been told that that's just my opinion.

Oh yeah, and I'm also Kid Flash.

_Who's Kid Flash_, you're asking now? Oh ho, now you're just jerking me around.

Alright then, I'll break it down for you. But only because I feel like humoring you.

When I feel bored or I have a lot of excess time to waste, I don this costume, see? Red and yellow, contrasting colors. They help bring out my blue eyes. And a mask, but that's a given, since I don't want a lot of people knowing my identity, what with it being a secret and all.

So my power is that I'm fast. Really, really fast.

_How fast_, you ask?

I'm so fast, people only see a blur of red and yellow unless I deign to show myself before them. I'm so fast, I can break the sound barrier…although I need a running start for that one, truthfully. I can vibrate my molecules to generate massive amounts of friction, and I can just plain vibrate myself **through** solid objects. I can also make them explode behind me, but I tend to keep that trump card in the deck. I can generate whirlwinds and just by moving in a circle.

I'm a very special guy. In fact, a lot of my colleagues agree that under certain circumstances, I just very well could be the most powerful meta-human in existence.

Of course, despite my potential, I have a couple of drawbacks. I take too much joy from coming up with little quips and witty one-liners, but that's just the dot on the 'i' in "idiot". See, I have a problem where I can be a bit cocky.

…

Alright, don't look at me like that. I can be **really** cocky. But hey, when you have the skills that pay the proverbial bills, you've gotta have confidence in yourself, right?

I take solace in the fact that I'm the fastest kid alive, and if I play my cards right, I just might be the fastest person ever. Like, in all of existence. Kind of like being the heavyweight champion of the world, except I'm a lightweight at best, and the world is suddenly _everything_.

But, as godly as I seem to be, there are times when I feel like Lady Luck is leaving me tied up on the train tracks, with one of those big black steam-driven locomotives barreling down at me.

One particular event comes to mind. It didn't happen too long ago; in fact, it started less than a month after I helped the Titans take down the Brotherhood. With all the villains flash-frozen (save for Dr. Light, but really, who cares about him?), crime in Jump City was practically non-existent. I mean sure, you got the occasional small-time criminal and some weird guys in spandex costumes that looked like really poor papier-mâché , but for the most part, there was a blanket of peace draped comfortably around Jump and its inhabitants.

I was in the middle of fighting this one fat balding guy in a t-bone steak costume, wondering what the guy was on whilst smacking around the little meat puppets he had for minions, when it happened. One of the worst things that could ever possibly happen to me, save for dying or switching to a low-carb diet.

I lost my speed.


	2. Chapter 2 A Normal Day Goes Awry

Today was a weird day, and considering that Wally West had seen some really weird stuff during his tenure as Kid Flash, that meant that it was exceptionally weird.

He'd been up at the Tower, visiting the other Titans, when the call had come in; it was a guy that he'd had a run-in with several days earlier. He stood at a short 4'3", with a large gut and a receding hairline, and he had somehow managed to squeeze himself into a rubber costume shaped like a giant t-bone steak. He'd been making trouble at a mall food court, trying to 'liberate' the meat from a fast food establishment. To be contrite, he was kind of pathetic.

Wally was surprised that 'Meat-Man' had managed to get out of jail so fast, though. Had someone bailed him out? And if so, why; anyone who had the need for a partner in crime could do much better than Meat-Man. Heck, Dr. Light was better than Meat-Man. A guy with a _pillowcase_ over his head was a better choice than Meat-Man.

Nevertheless, he was the only person at the Tower when the alarm went off. Robin and the others were off in other areas of the city, and he hadn't quite worked out how to use his communicator to contact any of the other Titans like himself.

_Who needs back-up for this dude anyways_, Wally thought to himself. _He's a delusional guy with a penchant for meat products. The most he can do is swing a ham at me._

The alert showed that Meat-Man was over in the park, where a food pavilion was set up. _This guy is way too predictable._ In an instant he was out of the tower, the red-and-yellow blur taking a shortcut over the water to the park. Even from this distance, one could see the pavilion set up in the park, along with hints of the chaos transpiring there…

--

Underneath the large white tent of the pavilion, all hell was breaking loose.

The over-weight guy known as Meat-Man was standing on top of a white fold-away table, laughing maniacally with his hands on his hips as people trampled each other in an effort to get away from him – or rather, he attempted to laugh maniacally. What came out of his mouth wasn't menacing, and it squeaked a little, kind of like a rubber ducky. Evidently he didn't care, because he didn't stop trying to be intimidating as he laughed, eventually bending over and wheezing for air when he couldn't stop.

Kid Flash blew in suddenly, anything not tied down fluttering violently in the draft that he brought in. He leaned on one of the tables, taking a bite out of a hotdog he'd picked up on his way through the pavilion. Gulping loudly, he gestured at Meat-Man with the hotdog, a cheerful tone in his voice. "Hey, déjà-vu! First time I ran into you, you were stupid enough to hold up a food court! Now here we are, and you're…well, you're doing something at a food pavilion. You've got a one track mind, don'tcha tubby?"

Meat-Man screamed shrilly at him – a normal reaction, Wally had surmised – and spun around, swinging a giant hock of ham at Wally. He swung into the air, Wally already reclining as much as he could on a plastic chair several feet back. He interlaced his hands behind his head as he grinned widely, propping his feet up on another chair as he regarded Meat-Man coolly. "Dude, you're a slow learner. Flailing around with that thing didn't work out too well for you last time, remember?"

"Shut up and take him out already."

The both of them looked around in search of the owner of the voice, but came up short. Suddenly the ground began to rumble, and the earth erupted in a small spot underneath the table Meat-Man was standing on. A water main, exposed by the small tremor, burst and propelled the table and Meat-Man into the air. They both came down rather spectacularly, although Meat-Man landed face first on the ground. Wally winced, already up and out of his seat. "Oh, that has to really hurt. At least you've still got your health, right?"

Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to the side, smiling as he caught sight of a familiar face. "Hey, fancy seeing you here. What's the occasion?"

Off to his right side, the cause of the exploding water main, was a girl with ashen-gray skin and pink hair, pulled to either side and pointed upwards. She was the illustrious bad luck witch Jinx, who'd been running with the H.I.V.E. Five, up until Wally had convinced her that there was a different path for her. Of course, even if she _was_ still running with the bad guys, he would have been happy to see her: he didn't exactly keep how he felt about her a secret. She glanced over at him, still keeping an eye on Meat-Man, who was struggling to get back up on his feet. "I was checking out the French pastries…I would've been here quicker, but some jerk spilled mustard on me and I had to go change."

Wally crossed his arms, one corner of his mouth twitching upward as his smile quickly turned into a smirk. He enjoyed teasing people, and Jinx wasn't an exception. "I don't see any freshly dug graves around here. Am I to believe that you didn't snap at him?"

"I yelled at him and emptied the rest of the mustard onto his head."

"Ah, but you didn't hex him! I'm proud of you."

Jinx turned to look at Wally, resting her hands on her hips. "And I'm so _glad_ for that. Can you just tie him up and get it over with so we can get back to the Tower!?"

"Alright, alright – hey lookit, Tweedle-Dum is back on his feet."

Wally was right; taking advantage of the time they spent talking, Meat-Man had finally regained his footing. The man panted, his hands resting on his knees as he fought to get his breath back.

Wally grinned, staring down the heavy-set man. "What do you say we just take you to jail? It'll be just like last time, only I won't have to haul a half-unconscious you from the floor of a mall. My back will thank you, by the way."

The guy who called himself Meat-Man, having finally regained his breath, merely glared at the two of them before…gesturing to a nearby table covered in meat?

Wally stared back at him, his shoulders sagging as he heaved a dramatic sigh. "Great, you're more crazy than usual. Guess we're going to have to do this the old-fashioned, more-work-for-my-chiropractor way."

He heard Jinx off to his side, trying to get his attention. "Uh, Kid Flash…"

"What?" He tore his gaze away from the sad little man, redirecting his attention at Jinx. He followed her pointing finger, and looked back over at the table with all the meat on it. Slowly, his jaw dropped as the meat began to…move. It gathered itself into separate balls, and impossibly, the balls started to mold themselves into little mini-golems of…well, meat.

He was vaguely aware of Jinx asking him something, and he shook his head and turned to her. "What?"

"I _said_, did he do this before?"

He frowned, watching the meat-golems hop off their table and march towards them with a fairly impressive stature of 5 feet even. "Nope. Our doggy learned a new trick."

Jinx's eyes were already glowing a brilliant pink as the first golem lunged for them, and Kid Flash was barely even a blur as he crashed into it in mid-air.

---

Alone up on a hill overlooking the park, a man dressed entirely in black was lying on his stomach and watching all of them with a pair of binoculars. A dark red beard covered his chin, and several scars covered other parts of his face. Without lowering his binoculars from his face, he withdrew a communicator from his pocket and held it up to his mouth.

"Commander. I'm in position."

The communicator crackled momentarily, and a slightly-tinny voice issued out of the tiny little speaker.

"_Good work. How is the experiment proceeding?_"

"It's proceeding normally. The test subject has been engaged by two meta-humans in a park."

"_Which two?"_

The man paused, thinking back to the directory of names and code-names he'd memorized. "1176 and 2124."

There was a lull in the noise from the communicator, and when the voice returned it had an underlying tone of smugness.

"_Ah, Jinx and the Kid Flash. Of course they'd be together._" He chuckled darkly before asking the man a question with baited breath. "_And how is the test subject faring?_"

The man on the hill continued studying the three through his binoculars. Another golem exploded in a shower of pink energy, and there was a 'boom' of displaced air as Wally knocked the head off of the next one. He was impressed; Kid Flash was having to resort to momentum. The golems were becoming tougher exponentially. Their numbers were dwindling fast though, and the panicked look on _Meat-Man's_ face confirmed it.

"The test subject is quickly becoming overwhelmed by the meta-humans."

"_As expected, Agent, as expected._"

"Do you want me to take the subject out, sir?"

"_No no, no need to tip the hand towards us so soon in the first act. But we can't let him get taken into custody with his gifts. Strip them from him."_

"Yes sir." The man set his binoculars to the side, reaching around to his other side to produce several different pieces of remarkable engineering. He quickly and quietly assembled the pieces together into a rather normal looking rifle, one that he then attached a scope to before testing the sight of it. Reaching into his other pocket he took out a single, smooth-looking metal cylinder with a glass compartment half the size of the fingernail on one's little pinky. He inserted the cylinder and chambered it, looking through the scope and centering the crosshairs on the neck of Meat-Man.

"_One last thing, Agent._"

An inaudible sigh escaped the man's lips, and he hardly blinked as he kept his sights on Meat-Man. He hated it when his commander got all dramatic and theatrical. A very, very terse: "What?"

"_Deal with 2124 as well._"

A wry smile curled its way onto his mouth, and he lowered the rifle. "Yes sir." He reached into his pocket again, pulled out another cylinder, and loaded it.

He took up Meat-Man in his sights again and, without a moment's hesitation, pulled the trigger. As the silenced projectile rocketed towards its target, the man swung the rifle around, catching Jinx's grey neck in his sights…

…and continued on until he found the yellow spandex-clad neck of Kid Flash, whereupon he pulled the trigger and waited. Through the scope, he watched; he couldn't see the cylinders split open, the tiny pointed chambers of glass hurtling towards their final destination, but he imagined he could see them, and it made him feel all warm inside.

---

The remaining meat golems screeched, huddling back towards their master and father as Kid Flash and Jinx advanced, and Meat-Man gave a small squeak as he realized that he had lost. He raised his hands in surrender, and suddenly the golems wailed to the sky, collapsing into themselves only to leave piles of meat behind.

"Good thing you know when to quit pudgy, my hands smell like a school cafeteria- ya!" Wally interrupted his quip, slapping the side of his neck as he felt a sting. He drew back his hand and inspected it, noting that there was nothing in his palm.

Jinx crossed her arms, stepping forward to give him a pointed stare. "What?"

Wally grumbled, scratching at his neck. "Nothing…'s probably just a mosquito."

There was a moment of silence, and Jinx burst into laughter at him. "A mosquito bite makes you scream like a little girl!"

He frowned, glaring at her. "Don't poke fun at me in front of a villain!"

Meat-Man, sitting on the ground, looked up almost expectantly at this. "Y-you think I'm a villain?"

"No, I was making a point, shut up."

Meat-Man let his head drop and, as sirens began to arrive quickly, Wally shook a finger at him. "Sit still for the nice men in blue." A couple of officers raced over and cuffed Meat-Man, leading him away to a squad car.

Still rubbing the side of his neck, Wally turned his head and flashed a grin at Jinx. "So, how'd you get here?"

"…I walked."

"Wanna race back to the Tower?"

Jinx huffed, shoving Wally and walking off on her own. "Oh please, you're an idiot."

"C'mon! I promise I won't use my power! Seriously, scout's honor!"

Jinx glanced back over her shoulder, staring at Wally as he held two fingers to his forehead in a salute. "…I bet you were never even a boy scout."

"Well not for long, actually."

"See you back at the Tower."

"Wait wait wait! What if I up the stakes?"

Jinx paused, resting her hands on her hips. "What do you have in mind…?"

Wally caught up with her, extending a hand to her. "You win, I'll do whatever you ask for a week."

Still refusing to look him in the face, Jinx kept staring straight ahead at the Titan's Tower off in the distance. "And if you win?"

There was that damn grin on the very edge of her peripheral vision, dazzling her as it taunted her. "I get a kiss. Just one, but I get to hold it as long as I can without passing out."

She whipped her head around and glared at him darkly, failing to intimidate him enough to drop his grin. "…no powers?"

"No powers."

Jinx stood there, apparently mulling it over, while Wally stood next to her with his hand outstretched. She raised a hand and rubbed her chin, looking from Wally's face to his hand. Eventually she reached out her hand and, with a mischievous smile on her face, slapped his hand. "Deal." She was off almost faster than Wally could react, and he took up the chase.

They ran along the road towards the cliff in the distance, both of them sprinting across the pavement, but never did Jinx lose the lead. She took glances over her shoulder whenever she felt safe to, and she was always surprised to find Kid Flash on her heels instead of suddenly in front of her. Was he really not using his powers? Did he think she wouldn't keep him to his side of the bet? _He probably thinks I'll make him do things he wants to…idiot._

Wally, however, wasn't feeling as confident. A look of worry began to ease itself onto his face, and he leaned forward slightly as he tried to catch up to Jinx. "Jinx, wait!"

"No chance!"

"Seriously, hold on, I can't run!"

"Bullshit!"

"No, I mean I can't _run_!"

"Tell it to me over the finish line!"

"**JINX, DAMNIT, STOP!**"

She finally heard the worry in his voice and spun around, still half-jogging backwards as she gave him a wary glance. Having gotten her attention Wally padded to a stop, looking at her desperately.

"What do you mean, you can't run?"

"I can't run fast."

"I thought you were the 'fastest kid in the world'-" Wally cut her off, almost yelling. "Not now I'm not!"

Jinx froze, frowning as she regarded Wally. She'd never known him to act like this, and this didn't seem like some ploy to gain the upper-hand in the race. He wasn't that smart. "So you just…can't do it?"

He shook his head, walking over to her. "No, I can't; it just feels wrong, not like how it used to feel."

"Then we need to get you to Cyborg. You need to be checked out."

Wally nodded, but Jinx noticed that he looked very sullen. She hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to console him. "Cheer up, let's get a taxi."

"Why?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Stupid, I just sprinted about a mile thinking you were going to rush past me. I'm not walking anymore."

"But I hate taxis. They all smell, and you can't stretch out in one, and the driver yells at you like you're an idiot…"

"If you have a **better** idea, I'd like to hear it." She turned around and caught sight of one of the Jump taxis further on down the road, raising an arm and trying to flag it down. Wally watched her do it, and something clicked as a devilish little grin appeared on his face. "Oh, I've got a much better idea."

Before she could ask what, he'd already ducked down and poked his head between her legs. He immediately straightened up and hooked his arms behind her legs, supporting her lower back to keep her from falling off his shoulders.

"Wai- what?! Let GO of me!"

"Don't struggle too much, I don't want to drop you. You'd take off your entire first layer of skin on this road!"

She shut up, blushing furiously as she bounced on his shoulders and he jogged back towards the Tower. Eventually he let her settle further down his back, so that he was giving her a piggyback ride instead of balancing her on his shoulders. It was slow going.

It was about an hour later before they finally came up on the Tower, and Wally began to slow down as they neared it. He knelt to the ground and let Jinx drop off his back, noting the dark red color on her cheeks. He smiled at her, gesturing towards the doors of the Tower with a flourish. "After you, m'lady."

She entered and he followed, shutting the doors behind them. The Tower was quiet, but then again they were on the first floor. Wally looked at the stairs with more than a bit of reluctance, his shoulder's slumping down. "Cyborg's probably in his lab…I better start climbing…"

He'd barely taken the first step when something dawned on Jinx.

"Wait, Wally…how'd you know your power was gone?"

He stopped in mid-step, not daring to look back at her. "I told you, it just felt wrong."

"How could it feel wrong if you didn't try them?"

"…"

Her eyes narrowed. "You _did_ try them."

"Well…"

"You were going to cheat!"

He didn't need to look back to see how much trouble he was in; he could see the pink glow on the railing before him. He made a point of looking at his right arm, inspecting a watch that wasn't there. "Oh, look at the time, Cyborg's going to be shutting himself down any minute now. I'd better hurry."

She yelled behind him and he scrambled up the steps, narrowly avoiding a hex. He managed to avoid the other few she threw at him; Lady Luck had seen fit to strip away his power, but she apparently wanted him alive.


End file.
